The Secret to Selling Your Company's Message

As an
entrepreneur
, no one knows your brand better than you do. And, as you navigate the
complex twists and turns
of running your own business, you might think that explaining why you love your company and why other people should love it, too, should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. To get people excited about your brand, you first need to get them to understand it—and you’re fighting against an average attention span that’s dipped below five minutes for
face-to-face conversations
, and just a few sentences for writing.

Communicating your brand
is an art form. And the first step to it is coming up with messaging that’s relevant, concise, and compelling. Follow these simple steps to identify your key messages and streamline them into a perfect one-liner—and you’ll be able to quickly spark (and hold) the interest of your iPhone-gazing audience.

Your Q&A: Who Are You, Anyway?

The most important questions you should ask yourself when developing your message are the “Who?”, “What?”, “Where?”, and “Why?”—this is the information your audience will need to understand (within seconds) to get why your offering is
worth their time
.

To get started, write out answers to the following:

What does your company do?

What need does it serve?

How does your company differentiate itself from its competitors?

Who is your audience? (Hint: sometimes it helps to draft a few “character profiles.” Think about the people you are targeting—what do they do? What do they look like? What need does your brand fill for them?)

Then, think of 2-3 questions you never want a potential investor to ask you—and answer them.

Be sure to
be transparent
and genuine as you answer these questions, and always bring it back to the positive (especially for those tough questions). Don’t like your answers? Work on them until you’re not only comfortable, but excited. Play with the different character profiles you drafted and see if answering the question “what does your company do?” with each of them in mind shifts any of the language.

While you won’t necessarily show this document to anyone else, it’s a great resource for you—it forces you to get familiar with and streamline the language and phrases you use to explain
your brand
. It also helps you prepare answers in advance for questions you’ll likely get asked (including the cringe-worthy ones!).

Your Mission Statement: The One-Sentence Story

Once you have all of that language in place, challenge yourself to define your company in just one sentence. Use what you’ve written, and pick out the most important information and some of your favorite words and phrases. And make sure to
ditch the jargon
! While you want this statement to be written in the voice of your brand, you also want it to be clear, concise, and compelling to anyone who hears it.

For a bit of inspiration, here are a few examples of start-ups with great mission statements:

Artsicle
:
“Artsicle is here to help you discover your personal taste in art, from the comfort of your couch.”

HowAboutWe
:
“HowAboutWe is the fastest, easiest, most fun way to go on awesome dates.”

Airbnb
:
“Airbnb is a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world—online or from a mobile phone.”

Distilling your brand down to just a sentence (or two) will help you keep your message clear, not to mention make it a whole lot easier to get someone else quickly excited about your brand.

Now, with your purpose clear, your answers to those FAQs ready, and a snappy mission statement at the
tip of your tongue
, there’s just one last step—getting your message out there! Post your mission statement on your website. Tweet it, Facebook it, incorporate it into your LinkedIn profile. And when the next person lifts his gaze from his iPhone long enough to ask you what you do—tell him.

Topics

Alex Honeysett is a Brand and Marketing Strategist who partners with CEOs, executives and solopreneurs to grow their personal and professional brands, human-to-human. After spending nearly a decade working in PR and marketing for multimillion dollar brands and startups, Alex knows what truly drives conversions, sold-out launches, and *New York Times* interviews—and it’s not mastering the marketing flavor of the week. It’s how well you connect with the heart-beating people you’re trying to help and communicate your understanding back to them. Alex has landed coverage in print and broadcast outlets around the world, including the Today Show, *Wall Street Journal*, Mashable, BBC, NPR, and CNN. Her own articles have been featured in The Muse, *Forbes*, *Inc.*, Mashable, DailyWorth, and *Newsweek*. In addition to her extensive PR and marketing experience, Alex is a trained business coach.